Capitol Gains Tax on house sale

carrotcruncher

Hiya,

Apologies if this is a stupid question!

I own my house and my boyfriend owns his house, well, each of us has a seperate mortgage on our home in our own name. Boyfriend is on a good mortgage rate, I'm with Northern Rock.

We've been talking about our future and discussed marriage, mortgages etc. We could sell one and use the profit to pay off the other mortgage and be mortgage free, which would be nice!

If we marry and then sell one of the houses, will we have to pay capitol gains tax on the profit?

If so, should we sell one house before we get married to avoid this?

Not very romantic I know, but I'm just trying to be sensible!

Thanks for any thoughts or advice

Carrotcruncher

ceeforcat

If either sells their house within three years of it no longer being their main residence, it will be free of Capital Gains Tax. Thereafter there is a sliding scale although you also have to have a CGT profit of c£10000 before any tax is payable.